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Ford's latest Shelby GT350 is the most balanced, nimble and exhilarating production Mustang yet.
MONTEREY, CALIF. – The name goes back half a century, to a time when both horsepower and gas were cheap and plentiful. It was also a time when I found out what obsession was, at least my pre-pubescent understanding of the word.
Fifty years ago, with the Beatles playing one of their weekly hits over my static-ridden AM radio and my reading light on, I, a scrawny and gawky kid, traded precious sleep time for all the information I could glean in Motor Trend and Car and Driver regarding the Shelby GT350, the “grooviest” Ford Mustang ever during the opening days of what would become the pony car wars between the Big Three.
Being a “Ford guy” and thanks to those buff books, I knew all 1965 GT350s were running K-Code 289-cubic-inch V8s modified to pump out 306 horsepower. The stock Ford Falcon live rear axle was replaced with a heavy-duty Ford Galaxie unit. Larger, metal-lined rear drum brakes and Kelsey-Hayes front disc brakes provided stopping power. The GT350R race-spec versions, built specifically for SCCA B-Production competition, were even groovier — er, cooler. In retrospect, both of those cars — as valuable as they would be in today’s collector market — would seem positively tractor-like in comparison with today’s modern muscle machines. No such claim of crudity can be leveled against the new Shelby GT350 Mustang, benefiting from all the computer-aided improvements made to automobiles over the past 50 years, not to mention numerous bespoke components. True, it’s almost 1,000 pounds heavier than the original, which will have the old-timers clucking in disapproval, but this 2016 model also boasts 70 per cent more power.
Ah, yes, for this car and the performance segment it serves, it’s all about the numbers and the bragging rights that come with it — which, as is patently obvious, include thumbing its nose at the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. First, the boast: Ford says the unique 5.2-litre flat-plane crankshaft V8 is the most powerful, normally aspirated road-going engine in Blue Oval history. Now the numbers: 526 horsepower and 429 lb.-ft. of torque for both the GT350 and the GT350R — achieved without turbocharging or supercharging. The V8 produces 102 horsepower per litre of displacement and, with an 8,250-rpm redline, is the highest-revving V8 the company has ever made. It is also the foundation on which the car is built.
“The Shelby GT350 program began with a clear objective: create the most balanced, nimble and exhilarating production Mustang yet,” said Jamal Hameedi, Ford Performance chief engineer, earlier this year. “Every change we made to this car was driven by the functional requirements of a powerful, responsive powerplant.” Somehow, the word “responsive” seems so inadequate. Put the hammer down and the Shelby launches with a fury that defies restrained metaphors. The shove into the back of the seat is accompanied by a howl emanating from the twin pipes that borders on primal. In turn, this engenders an instinctive, unsuppressed reaction — a face-splitting smile, followed almost immediately by sheer panic as the tight, double-apex of Turn 2 looms. In its infinite wisdom, Ford is letting us hammer both the GT350 and the lighter-weight (by 105 pounds) GT350R on the undulating and challenging Laguna Seca race circuit.
Unlike the good old days, when muscle cars were ferociously quick in a straight line but turned and braked like the Queen Mary, there is no drama. GT350s boast the largest brakes Ford has ever put on a production Mustang – massive 394-mm front discs and 380-mm rear rotors – clamped by six-piston fixed Brembo calipers with integrated caliper bridges at the front and four-piston units at the rear. These scrub off 100+ mph speeds with a fade-free efficiency I’ve seldom experienced. Ditto grip. The GT350 is fitted with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires wrapped around 19-inch cast aluminum-alloy wheels — 10.5 inches wide up front and 11 inches in the rear. The tires, says Ford, deliver maximum traction on the road or for track days. Brake hard for a corner — the Recaro sport seats wrapping you in a lover’s embrace — turn the wheel and power out. No fuss, no muss.
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